


Little Box of Strawberries

by sodapeach



Category: VICTON (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Nightmares, probably no spicy times sorry, seungsik has nightmares, seungwoo is just happy to help
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27481558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sodapeach/pseuds/sodapeach
Summary: Seungwoo and Seungsik’s relationship changes after they start (literally) sleeping together.
Relationships: Han Seungwoo/Kang Seungsik
Comments: 13
Kudos: 76





	Little Box of Strawberries

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This was supposed to be a long one shot, but I haven’t been feeling the best lately because of some irl and health stuff so I decided to break it up into smaller pieces so _something_ gets posted. Sorry for inconsistent updates, I’ll try my best TT
> 
> Anyways here’s another self indulgent sleepy fic because I love them :3

Seungwoo was halfway out of bed before he even realized he had woken up. Completely on auto pilot, he propelled himself up and over the side without an actual destination in mind. He didn’t need to use the bathroom or get anything to drink, but he couldn’t control the sense of urgency he felt that told him he needed to be somewhere specific in a hurry.

It was in the middle of the night, maybe somewhere around 2 or 3, and his apartment was just as quiet as if no one was home. He stuck his head out into the hall and saw that the light was off and his roommate’s door was shut. Seungsik was asleep then, he guessed, so whatever he decided to do, he needed to do it quietly so that he didn’t wake him, but he was half tempted to press his ear to the door to see if he could catch him snoring.

It was a strange phenomenon really that no matter how deep of a sleep Seungsik was in, he always stopped making any kind of noise as soon as Seungwoo entered the room. It was like he was trying to keep it a secret, always on high alert and never one to cause a disturbance and always far too considerate for someone whose alarm tone was the shrill early morning call of bagpipes.

He was happy though that Seungsik was fast asleep inside his room, not as inexplicably unsettled as he was, but then Seungsik wasn't in his room at all. He was on their living room sofa watching tv with the volume off and a blanket slung around his shoulders. 

In the dim blue light, he looked pale and different. The natural warmth of his cheeks was completely washed out, and he looked like a ghost frozen in time, left behind to haunt a futon from Ikea for the rest of eternity. He didn’t notice Seungwoo walk in, but he didn’t seem like he would have noticed anything at all based on the ghastly expression on his face.

“Seungsik?” The look he gave him could have been described more or less as vacant. It was hollow and cold, and it sent a shiver down Seungwoo’s spine. “What’s wrong?”

“Did I wake you,” he asked instead of answering. Hearing his voice relaxed Seungwoo a bit. For a moment he feared that the person he saw sitting alone in their living room wasn’t a person at all, but no, there he was, Seungwoo’s closest friend and roommate, not quite himself but very much real.

“No, I was just getting a snack,” he said. Did Seungsik wake him? It was possible. The sound of him getting from point A to point B could have been enough to stir him, but he didn’t think so. At least he couldn’t remember anything more than suddenly opening his eyes and pushing the covers off of himself in a way that could have been called impulsive. 

Seungsik hummed and turned his attention back to the screen. Seungwoo glanced at it and saw that it was an infomercial for some brand of copperware pots. The chef on the screen demonstrated how durable the pot was by shoving a hand mixer inside as if anyone would have ever done that to a pot in real life. As unusual as it was, Seungsik didn’t blink, lost in a trance that Seungwoo found most unsettling.

“What’s he making,” he asked, breaking the tension surely only he felt.

“Mashed potatoes I think.”

“How do you know?”

“They put potatoes in the pot a few minutes ago. I think they were potatoes. I don’t know.”

“Can you hear it?”

“No,” he said, his voice short and distanced, but he didn’t sound at all irritated, just very much to the point. Seungwoo knew that when he was pissed off, his words came sharply through his teeth like little darts of poison, hardly detectable but potentially lethal, but this time he just sounded like he didn’t feel like forming too many words, and Seungwoo understood that feeling well.

“Turn it up then,” Seungwoo said, satisfied that the food in the pot was probably mashed potatoes even if the way the chef was making them would have made his mother’s skin crawl.

“I don’t want to keep you up.” 

The television was pushed up against one of the walls that Seungwoo shared, and it was true that if someone watched anything on it, the sound projected directly into his room, but if Seungsik wanted to watch an infomercial at 3 in the morning, it wouldn’t have been a problem for him at all.

“You won’t,” he assured him. “Just no action movies after midnight, please. Or horror.”

Seungsik looked up at him and smiled faintly, but he didn’t do much more than that, returning to his own pocketed silence while Seungwoo stood there trying to think of something helpful to say, but he was rendered speechless by Seungsik’s own disinterest in anything but the man doing questionable things to a set of brand new copper cookware.

He soon gave up and went into the kitchen where he was sure his body wanted him to go in the first place. He flipped on a light switch so he could see what he was doing, and he immediately looked over his shoulder to see if the light bothered Seungsik, but he didn't seem to care either way about what was happening behind him. Seungwoo frowned. This wasn’t like him at all. Seungsik was nosy, and he liked stealing Seungwoo’s snacks, but this time Seungsik was busy doing nothing, and that made his stomach flip in the worst way.

He took out the little box of strawberries from inside the fridge and dumped half of them into a bowl, enough to share if Seungsik wanted, he thought. If Seungsik didn’t want to share them, he would have just had to accept his half of the berries anyway because the thought of Seungsik sitting there like that  _ not  _ eating with him made Seungwoo sadder than he would have liked to admit. Whatever the problem may have been, he knew he couldn’t fix it, but he thought he could at least have given Seungsik something to chew on, something to make him feel a little bit more like a person again.

He brought the bowl into the living room and sat down next to his friend who leaned against him slightly once he settled. It was subconscious, he knew it, but it felt nice that Seungsik’s first instinct was to move towards him. That little gesture was a sign that he was somewhere still inside just below the surface, and it encouraged Seungwoo to try to find him.

He picked one of the berries out for himself, hoping Seungsik would succumb to the temptation on his own, but it didn’t seem to work even if Seungwoo happened to slurp a little from how juicy they were.

“Eat,” he finally said, nudging him with the bowl. Seungsik looked down at it and blinked slowly, registering what Seungwoo was trying to do. “Eat or I’ll have to feed you myself.”

He looked up at him that time and blinked again, the same lazy look he gave the strawberries, and Seungwoo imagined he was so sleepy that Seungsik probably thought he answered him.

“I’ll baby bird you,” he couldn’t say with a straight face. Seungsik scrunched his nose in disgust, and, encouraged, Seungwoo grabbed another strawberry and brought it to his own mouth like he was about to chew it up for him before redirecting to Seungsik’s. He softened his voice and cupped his free hand below his jaw in case any spilled. “Open up.”

Seungsik opened his mouth lazily and bit off the tip of the strawberry, but he couldn’t keep himself from slurping. Seungwoo stifled a laugh. Even in the low light he could see him flush as he pulled away and wiped the excess juice off onto the back of his hand. Seungwoo tossed the half eaten berry into his mouth without a second thought.

“That’s better,” he said more to himself.

“Hmm?”

“You look human again.”

“Oh,” he laughed. “I’m just sleepy.”

“Yeah, then why don’t you go to sleep,” Seungwoo asked. The blanket slipped from Seungsik’s shoulders as he turned to talk to him so Seungwoo placed the bowl in Seungsik’s lap so he could pull it back up for him.

“I would if I could,” he said before taking out a strawberry for himself. Seungwoo smiled as he watched him, happy to see Seungsik moving even if just a little bit.

“Are you… okay?” Seungwoo swallowed.

He looked at him speechless and surprised enough that he stopped chewing before he realized what he was asking. “Oh! I’m fine, I just can’t sleep.”

Seungwoo squinted slightly, sensing there was something he wasn’t telling him.

“I’ve been having a lot of bad dreams lately,” he said, turning away. “So I sit up watching infomercials until I pass out.”

“Huh. I didn’t even notice.”

He nodded towards the tv. “I keep the sound off.”

“Oh right,” he said. He took another strawberry from the bowl and ate it before slouching into the couch. “So what’s on after copper pots?”

“Electric shavers,” he said, sitting back with him. “Aren’t you going back to bed?”

“I’ll stay up a bit with you. It’d feel weird going back to bed knowing you’re out here by yourself.”

“You don’t have to, you know.” His voice was soft and leading like he didn’t mean it.

“I won’t if you’d rather be alone,” Seungwoo said. 

“I don’t,” he said.

“Good, we have a snack to finish.”

Seungsik took another strawberry out and ate it carefully, chewing longer than was probably necessary and avoiding eye contact with Seungwoo. It was good that he looked more alive then, but something about it made Seungwoo feel particularly self conscious like there was a reason for them to be awkward with each other in a way he hadn’t encountered before.

“You better eat fast,” Seungsik warned.

“Why’s that?”

“You’d be surprised how sedating these programs can be.”

Seungwoo laughed like he was joking, but then Seungsik’s words became less of an omen and more of a practical heads up because the next thing he knew he was waking from a hazy slumber that was so powerful he forgot what year it was.

The funny thing was, he didn’t remember falling asleep or laying down at all. He remembered crawling over Seungsik to get the remote so he could at least hear about the new and improved Power Shaver 3000 with included beard and bikini trimmers for just the additional cost of shipping and handling and Seungsik smacking him on the back of his leg in retaliation. He remembered the sting and the playful yelp and then the follow up threat to bite him if he didn’t move so he could see, but other than that it was like the night never happened.

Suddenly he was on his back on that very same sofa with Seungsik asleep on his chest, his leg hooked over Seungwoo’s waist with the blanket covering them both.

_ Well this is new. _

He stared up at the ceiling in surprise, trying his best to control the nervous heart in his chest. Sure he had thought about winding up in this position before, but he never imagined in his wildest dreams that it could have ever been something that would have happened between them. Seungwoo as a person might have been a touchy kind of guy, but Seungsik  _ wasn’t _ and for that reason Seungwoo always kept his distance. Perhaps for other reasons too.

This was somewhat of a problem, and yet he couldn’t help but feel… something about it. Happy was an understatement, and excited wasn’t quite right either. This was the same feeling he had as when he randomly turned on the tv and saw that his favorite movie was on right at the beginning right after ordering his favorite food with a free coupon he got in the mail.

No, that wasn’t right either. All he knew was that he was still half asleep, a little delirious, and his roommate who he had only casually thought up this scenario about a few dozen times was unconscious on his chest. How he felt about it wasn’t something he was able or ready to explain yet.

Too afraid to move, Seungwoo’s arms were still wrapped tightly around his sleeping body. He thought about removing them to lay at his sides because certainly he wasn’t supposed to keep them there, but he also considered that if he moved too much he might have woken him, and if Seungsik woke under those circumstances with Seungwoo staring stupidly at him, he might have run away from him in embarrassment. Seungwoo didn’t want him to leave though. He wanted to hold him a little longer if he could. 

He blinked quickly at the thought. How was it that he knew he wasn’t supposed to do something because it was disastrous but still wanted to? Oh well, it wasn’t like he was hurting anyone...

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath which might have been just as big of a mistake as moving would have been because as soon as he did, Seungsik shifted in his arms, sliding off of his chest and to his side, dangerously close to the end of the cushion. Seungwoo didn’t let go of him, scared that he would fall off if he did and waiting to see if Seungsik pushed away on his own, but instead it seemed that minus a soft grumble, he was content to stay.

Seungwoo took a gamble and opened his eyes slightly as he shifted to his own side to give them both plenty of room on the sofa. He slid his arm under Seungsik’s neck who rested into it like it was second nature, and Seungwoo thought that even if his arm fell off from the lack of circulation, he would happily lay like that with him forever.

He buried his face in Seungwoo’s shirt and clenched the fabric with one of his hands. Seungwoo wondered if he was having another one of his dreams and pulled him closer to his chest. At least he could do that much. As long as he controlled the pounding in his chest, he was just a friend being supportive like he was when he offered him a half of his strawberries.

  
  


The next morning neither of them said anything about it. It wasn’t brought up in passing as a joke while they both got ready for work, and no one asked any questions or made any comments about it at all. It was like it never happened, but Seungwoo was sure it wasn’t just a dream. The ache in his arm was all he needed to remind himself that someone had laid on it all night.

The half eaten bowl of strawberries, the tv left on at a low volume, the blanket left bunched up on the couch, all of it was proof that they had spent the night together, and yet none of it was as convincing was the tremble in his hands from no longer having someone to hold onto.

Seungsik left first having to catch a train to work, and as soon as the door shut behind him, Seungwoo let out a deep breath. He wasn’t sure why he was so stressed out about it, but he had been walking on eggshells all morning afraid if he opened his mouth he’d start honking like a startled goose. 

Either he was the only one freaked out or Seungsik’s silence was deafening, and that alone made him stress about it way more than he should have. Was Seungsik mad at him? Did he think Seungwoo was a creep? Did he think _ he  _ did something wrong?

Seungwoo shook himself. Neither one of them did anything wrong, and neither one of them had anything to feel weird about. They just accidentally passed out watching infomercials and didn’t get up until their alarms went off for work. No big deal. He straightened up, feeling much better about it. It wasn’t like he did anything weird, and if Seungsik wasn’t bothered then he had no reason to be.

But the fact that they didn’t at least joke about it made him feel like something was missing, and he couldn’t put his finger on what.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are welcome if you feel so inclined 🙏 I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
